Our 11th Year together..

4 December always bring fond memories as I remembered how we had walked together for so many wonderful years.

We have been lucky to have so many supports along this road that we walked together. Not only thankful to our families, we also had great friends whom had seen us growth as a family and shared with us all the joy and happiness.

On Saturday, 4 December 2010 - it was our 11th year anniversary and knowing that Adrian had always wanted to see River dance performance. We decided to watch the 8pm show. Before we went to book the tickets, we asked for some logistic help in taking care of Anthea and Anders.

When all were settled, we went to the Sistics Counter and bought the tickets for our evening show.

As this was the 1st time we were watching a Live Performance at the Sands Theatre @ the Marina Bay Sands, we decided to go earlier to check out the venue and had a quick before show dinner.

It was also Adrian 1st visit to MBS area and he was impressed at how big the place was and how exquisite some of the Celebrities chef restaurants were. We had a simple dinner at the Rasaputra Masters (aka Food court )..haha.

The 2 hour show was mesmerizing and we truly enjoyed the world class performance. We were also surprised and honored to see PM Lee and Madam Hoy Ching at the same performance.

The song and the dances are closed to our daily lives as we are playing so many different roles very day.

May our years ahead be strong just like the Dance as every step we move; it would be full of energy and power.

Happy 11th Year to us !!

Kungfu Movie night and a Special Wedding Lunch

Movie Night, Friday, 06 June 2008

On Friday night, we decided to bring the children for a movie – Kungfu Panda. Both Anthea and Anders has seen the movie thriller on TV and requested to see the movie.

Under the UOB Rewards program, card holder can use their existing points to exchange for instant Movie tickets at Cathay Cineplex, so I thought of using my points to redeem for the movie tickets. And after work, I went to the AMK HUB Cathay Cineplex to book the 3 tickets for the 8.05pm show.

After getting the tickets, I fetched the children from school and went home to change.We had a quick dinner at the coffee shop near our house. The children were very excited when they knew we were seeing the movie. Adrian joined us at the coffee shop as his meeting ended late but lucky was still in time for a quick bite before the movie.

We reached the cinema around 7.55pm and they just started seating for the movie we were watching. We were in luck again...we bought 3 seats for the movie as usually Anders will sit on my laps. The seat at the corner was empty, so we actually had 4 seats and Anders sat comfortably on his own seat throughout the whole show. The show was very entertaining and the story line was quite good. Both of them enjoyed the show whole heartedly. I also had a good time and learnt an important lesson from Master “乌龟” – he said: “yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery and today is a Gift, that's why it's call Present.” ..hee!!

After the movie, I think both Anthea and Anders also learnt a new skill – KUNGFU. Both of the started practicing what the Master taught once we reached home...and it was really so hilarious. Hmm..i should consider sending them for martial art class.

Wedding Lunch, Sat, 07 June 2008

This is my 1st time attending a wedding lunch and it seems to be a trend now that wedding couples are hosting their wedding banquet at lunch time. Not a bad idea.

It was the wedding of Avin & Hui Qiong (Avin is the only son of my FIL's youngest brother.) So needless to say, it has to be a SPECIAL ONE. I think special is an understatement, it should be a SUPER SPECIAL AND UNIQUE Wedding... : P

(with Beautiful flower girl, Jasmine)

Usually after the couples walk in, dinner/lunch will commence. However, unique as the name suggested, the groom's father aka Uncle Philip decided to commence the event with table game. He prepared 2 questions for the audience and provided answer ang pow on the lunch table. Once we had written the answer, he will pool all the ang pow into a bowl and then conduct a Lucky Draw. 2 tables won table gift, the 2 tables was 31 and 16. The lunch commenced after the games ended with everyone already “warm up”.

The 2nd uniqueness of the lunch was the hotel service staff did a bit of “Grove” when they walked in with the dishes. The dance move was well choreographed and although it was just a few simple steps but it was really good effort on the banquet staff.

The 3rd uniqueness of the lunch is we were all served individually. Usually at a banquet, only the VIP's tables get such treatment but in this hotel, we were all given VIPs Treatment. The food served was very high quality and the service was excellent. I guess with all the IR and F1 events upcoming, all the hotels are gearing up their service to meet the marks.

The 4th uniqueness was when the couples did their 2nd walk in. The groom actually sang “Falling in Love” when he appeared suddenly among the audience and the walk to the door to bring in his Bride with him, the moment was so touching when you see the couples see eyes to eyes with this song. When they reached the stage, both of them sang a love song together. It was beautiful.

The 5th uniqueness – there was Live performances throughout the lunch; the couples friends had voluntarily go on stage to sing for the couples. We were entertained with familiar tunes of “一人一半” and other songs. The couples are really blessed with all the songs from their friend.

The last but not least uniqueness is Table Photography. Usually for a wedding, there will be A professional photographer, at this wedding, we not only have 1 or 2, we had 3 photographer taking our table photo…isnt it just amazing…haha.

I think the standard of weddings had gone up so much since our times and each one just get better and better. Of course, the market price of giving ang pao is also UP and UP. Lucky for me, my mom was available to look after Anthea and Anders at home, otherwise, our pocket will sure “burnt” a BIG Hole. : P

I am really glad that I had the chance to witness this wedding as this may be the final wedding among cousins on my FIL’s side of relatives. It may be a long long time again before we will have the chance to meet all the uncles/aunties /cousins again.

TT & CC Beautiful Wedding

We woke up to a nice & cool Saturday morning, got ourselves ready to go over to my In-laws house. The wedding couples were scheduled to arrive at 9.30 – 9.45 am.

We reached my In-laws place around 9 am and helps out around. One by one the relatives started to arrive. The buffet caterer was very prompt and the set up was ready by the time we arrived.

At 9.30 am, the main coordinator arrived and told us that the Groom and Bride had arrived and we were all supposed to “hide” away. This is a tradition that has been practiced. This is to avoid “clashes” with the Bride/Groom. The couples went straight in to their matrimonial room, once they are inside, all of us started coming out of our “hiding places”.

Anthea was tasked to serve the wedding couples a bowl of 汤圆 each. I believe this is to symbolize their marriage as “圆满”. Then after that the tea ceremony started. Traditionally, it used to be served in ranking orders. But nowadays, things are simplified to 1st come 1st served...hee : P

So after my in-laws drank their “媳妇茶”, then followed by the seniors ranking relatives, then it was our turn. TT & CC had to address us as “阿伯/伯母”; I believe this is to follow how their children will address us the next time. So I got promoted once again.

After the tea ceremony, it was time for the children to jump/roll on the matrimonial bed – symbolize “早生贵子”. One of our aunties even guided us to let Anders jump 1st before the 2 girls – Anthea and Faith joined in.

Then Cherry changed to her tea dress and the couples return to Bride’s home for their tea ceremony.

We had a quick lunch and went back home to let the children had their power nap around 1 pm.

Around 3pm, I brought Anthea to my usual Make-up artist to do our make-up and hair. Initially I had planned to ask my SIL aka Eve to do Anthea’s make-up, since we were at the salon to do her hair, I thought might as well do her make-up. Glad that I made this decision because at the hotel, Anthea needed to do the walk in rehearsal with the Live Band singing. So time was quite tight for her. Also I had to go & pack MacDonald Happy meals for the children to have some light bites before the dinner.

The moment of truth started around 8.15 pm when the Emcee announced the grand entrance of the Bride and her father. Anthea was the Flower Girl and when the ballroom door opened, the light was focused on the main door and she was standing there with the flower petals. Then she started walking in to the tune of “Butterfly Kisses” sang by the Band. Then Cherry and her dad walk in. It was a Lovely and Beautiful moment for the Bride, her dad and Groom.

I am also very proud of my little princess as she did her task very well, much to the satisfaction of the wedding couples. (she got BIG ang pows from Uncle Terence & Aunty Cherry for job well done. My MIL also rewarded her with an ang pow.)

The wedding walk in song is very touching and lyrics are very meaningful:

She'll change her name today.

She'll make a promise and I'll give her away.

Standing in the bride-room just staring at her.

She asked me what I'm thinking and I said "I'm notsure-I just feel like

I'm losing my baby girl."

She leaned over...gave me butterfly kisses with her mama there,

Sticking little white flowers all up in her hair

"Walk my down the aisle, Daddy-it's just about time."

"Does my wedding gown look pretty, Daddy? Daddy, don't cry!"
Oh, with all that I've done wrong I must havedone something right.

To deserve your love every morning and butterflykisses-

I couldn't ask God for more, man this is what love is.
I know I gotta let her go, but I'll always rememberevery hug in the morning and butterfly kisses. “

The solemnization began and it took about 15 minutes and the JP pronounced them as husband and wife. The ceremony ended with the JP wishing everyone good health.

Dinner commenced and we were all treated to a 9 course sumptuous food. During the dinner, Adrian had the chance to catch up with all the relatives. Food was good and service was excellent too. We had an enjoyable evening, also viewing the few montages that Terence and Cherry had specially prepared - thanking the parents and the family.

The whole event has been very well coordinated and I think Terence and Cherry has put in great effort to make this their very SPECIAL DAY. I know they will remember it for a long, long time.

Aces family wishes them a very Blissful Marriage and welcome Cherry to the Tan Family.

Dearest Terence & Cherry,

祝:你们百年好和， 永浴爱河！！

< Final Leg> Rehearsal for the Wedding Day

4 more days to go and it will be my youngest brother in law – Terence and his wife to be – Cherry Wedding Day.

We are all very excited as we are into the final leg of the week. Yesterday, Terence and Cherry arranged with the hotel to have a march in rehearsal for the actual day.

Terence had requested for Anthea to be there for the rehearsal which I agreed to. Being a “花妈” for the 1st time, I am also excited and want to ensure that Anthea can accomplish her task. So I took ½ day off to meet them at the hotel to preview the rehearsal.

My Mil is on leave and Adrian also claimed his off day for logistic support. In the afternoon, they went to the hotel to have buffet lunch as my MIL has lunch vouchers. After work, I met them at Plaza Singapore as Terence and Cherry needed to get the stuff for the flower basket. We went Spotlight and Daiso to shop for the DIY stuff. Luckily, we can find all the material required.

We went back to the hotel at 3pm to meet with the Banquet Manager. She brought us to the Ballroom and gave us an introduction to the layout. Then after that, the rehearsal for the march in started. Cherry’s father was there too as Cherry wanted her dad to walk her down the aisle before handling her off to Terence.

As a flower girl, Anthea responsibility was to walk in before the bride and her dad. She will also scatter rose’s petals as she walk down the aisle. So during the rehearsal, we need to pace Anthea steps so that she is within the timing of the music. After rehearsing for a few times, she managed to grasp the steps and petals throwing and it went quite well. Both Terence and Cherry were satisfied with her performance..Phew!! What a relief it was to me.

My 2nd BIL and his wife – Louis & Eve also came by to the hotel to give their moral support. Like I say, it is a BIG Family affair… :)

In the evening, we met up for dinner with the extended families for Clay pot rice, a treat from Terence for our effort. After dinner, we went back to my PIL’s house. Adrian has been tasked a reception for the relatives and he called himself the “Specialist”. He did an “audit check” with my PIL on the relatives’ guests list as he wanted to match faces to names. As he went through the list, he discovered a few missing “usual wedding dinner relatives” and highlighted to my PIL. Then after some scrabbling, then it was confirmed that the relatives were invited for the wedding but missing from the guests list. So immediately, our Specialist went through the whole list and did all the sorting accordingly. One of the 2 reserve tables is now being utilized.

Luckily, the Specialist did his check, otherwise, if we discovered on the day itself, it will be quite embarrassing and also caused chaos to the arrangement.

It has been a tiring but very fruitful day for us and most important the agenda has been finalized and we are all set & ready for the day.

Finally..Playhouse Disney!!

Eversince we travelled on Qantas and the children had the chance to watch Playhouse Disney channel, Anthea had been asking why we can't watch it at home. So adrian and myself has been explaining to her of the Starhub kids group only include Disney Channel (ch33), Nickelodeon (ch32) and Cartoon networks (ch35). For Playhouse Disney (ch34) we need to pay extra.

On Saturday morning, to our sweetest surprised, when Anthea turned on ch 34, there it was - Playhouse Disney. I read from the screen that Starhub had included Playhouse Disney to the Kids Basic Groups. So this mean from now onwards, Anthea and Anders had an additional channel to enjoy and like all Disney Princess stories - DREAMS DO COME TRUE.

As the weather had been very hot this week, i have been brewing barley water dilligently for the children to drink. Hopefully, this will helps to cool down their body heat and we also reduced our outdoors actitvities to minumum. My little niece had succumbed to the heat and was having fever for the last few days. Hopefully she will recover well this coming week and enjoy the weekend stay at the hotel... : )

Today, my eldest brother invited us to join him and my mom for lunch. We went to Raffles City and had lunch at Shokudo Japanese Food Bazaar. It had the same concept as Marche and it serves all kind of Japanese food - Sashimi, Teppanyaki, Udon/Soba, Japanese Pizza, Omu rices & soups. There were so many varieties and i told da-ge that must come back and try the others..hee : P

After lunch, we shopped around Robinson, Anthea and Anders had a good time at the toys section. Now there is a new donut outlet at the mall and i bought some to try - J.Co Donut & coffee.

We went home for the children afternoon nap before meeting the extended families for dinner at Jade Palace Seafood restaurant @ Forumn Galleria. Terence joined us for dinner and gave us an update on his wedding day itinerary. Looks like we are all set for a fun filled and Auspicious day.

Tomorrow is the rehearsal for the wedding night marched in. I took 1/2 day off to be there as Anthea will be there with my MIL.

过大礼 – 三部曲

Saturday, 26 April

第一部: 彩礼篮

On Saturday morning, I received a call from my Mother-in-law to inform me that she could not seem to find the 3 tier basket for the dowry session on Sunday. I told her maybe she can search for it in her house storeroom. Meanwhile, my immediate reaction was to call the shop to check for details.

During the week, I had been doing some research on the web to check on shops that provide such services. Quite luckily, there was this shop – Gin Thye 锦泰饼家, which specialized in such occasion. They provide the use of the basket for FREE as long as you ordered the cakes and whatever items from the shop, no minimum spending required.

MIL called me to confirm that the basket is not in her house. So together with my PIL and the 2 A’s, we went to the shop. Luckily the owner was quite accommodating to our request and we bought some items from the shop. We got the BASKET… mission accomplished. The shop owner ever provided us information on the arrangement of the auspicious items into the basket. It was an eye-opening session for me as I learnt more about tradition.

After buying all the stuff, we headed to MacDonald to packed 2 child meals for Anthea and Anders. We headed toward Sembawang Hill estate hawker centre for lunch. We had a nice fish soup and pastas for lunch. After lunch we went home to rest. Dinner was at Zhou’s kitchen @ Novena Square 2 as we had a 20% discount for UOB card. During dinner, there was discussion on the dowry ceremony and also the upcoming wedding dinner, 2 more weeks exactly.

Sunday, 27 April

第二部：送嫁妆

The auspicious hours for the ceremony are between 2 – 5 pm. At around 1.40pm, Adrian made his way to my PIL house to meet with Terence and my 2nd BIL, Louis. The 3 Tan Brothers were missioned to carry the stuff over and present to Cherry’s parents. Heard from Adrian that the exchange went smoothly. Then they brought the stuff back to my PIL house after Cherry’s parents had done the changes:

- exchange 12 oranges for 12 oranges
- presented the “四点金”
- presented the “聘金”
- presented 4 boxes of cakes and cherry’s parent returned 2 boxes
- presented 2 bottles of Red wines and cherry’s parents returned 2 bottles Ribena
- presented the tradition Teochew pastries and cherry’s parents returned ½ of the pastries

第三部: 结婚仪式及欢庆活动

Popiah Gathering and wedding day briefing. Cherry’s parents organized a popiah party for the 2 sides of families to get together also a get –to- know you session. Cherry has 3 younger siblings – 2 brothers and a sister. One of her brother is married. We had nice home made popiahs and there was even Hainan coffee. Her parents just went for a holiday in Hainan island and bought back the Hainan coffee. The coffee was very nicely brewed.. : )

Terence did a briefing on the agenda of the wedding day event. It will be a busy day for the Aces family as each and every one of us has been assigned a duty: P

Adrian –Reception for relatives and guard of “wedding ang pows”

Anthea – Flower girl (rehearsal session on 5 may and need to report early on actual day for final rehearsal)

Anders – Opening of car door when Terence and Cherry arrives at PIL’s house for tea ceremony
Astee – provide logistics support of flower girl and boy in attendance

Really looking forward now to 10th May 2008 !!

Counting Down (UP) !!

Wedding:
“Mommy, how many more days to Uncle Terence and Cherry jie jie wedding? “ Anthea has been asking Adrian and myself this question often, after she bought the dress & Tiara. I think she is the one looking more forward to the wedding than anyone else...hee : P

“Today is 10 April 2008; it is exactly 30 days to Uncle Terence’s wedding.” I told her. Her face brightens up. This reminds me that I also need to go and get myself a decent dress for the wedding dinner. I heard that all the men in the family are going to be Suited Up. So as the 大嫂 of the wedding couples, I must also look presentable. Now what should I wear?? Ps: Adrian had suggested that I get a pink dress to match Anthea’s dress. I don’t know if this is a good idea… : P (伤脑筋)

So this weekend, I must start shopping, shopping & shopping.

ERP:
Extract from Mr. Brown:

“I wonder if you know, how they live in Toa Payoh
Please lah tolong, only Lorong. Not Expressway also tio!
Fast and furious! (Kena!) (Beep! beep! beep!)
Spread like virus! (Aiyah!) (beep! beep! beep!)”

Starting this Monday, if I drive to work, I will kena this “Beep” as my office is in Toa Payoh. So now I will need to plan my TIME strategy. I have decided that on those days if I am driving, I will try to time myself to reach the ERP Gantry after 9 am. This means I will be a bit late for work but will stay back longer to compensate for the time lost. My working hours are 9 am to 5 pm. So 5 minutes +/- should be alright with my Boss… I hope.

A DOLLAR A DAY is a lot, especially nowadays prices of everything and anything is going UP & UP…sigh. $ 1 x 5 days = $5 x 4 weeks = $20.

Add another few dollars can buy a tin of Abbott Growth milk for Anthea, u say leh…it’s really “牛车轮” to me.

Beautiful Wedding & Happy 冬至

22 Dec 2007 is a beautiful day of Happy occassions.

Today is a BIG DAY for chinese as we celebrated the 冬至 (Winter Solstic). At lunch time, we went to my lao ma place for a good meal of home cooked hainanese chicken rice with other dishes. The main important dish for the day is none other than - 汤圆. My mum bought the red/white mixture from the market and rolled it into small balls and cooked them in ginger soup. It is a very refreshing drink and both Adrian and myself Love it.

Today is also a BIG DAY for our extended family - it is the customery wedding cum dinner for Chee Kheong & Angelyn. (chee kheong is the eldest son of my MIL's 2nd sister). It was definitely a family affair. In the morning, my MIL brought Anthea along to my aunty's house for the tea ceremony. In the evening, the Tan family attended their wedding dinner at Swissotel The Stamford Hotel.

This is our first timei attended a wedding dinner in this hotel and i must say - the food quality was good and all commented that it was delicious as well.. : )

The most important is the gathering of the relatives whome we only met during such occassion.

The dinner ended around 11 pm and we stayed around to chat with the aunties and we had so much laughter. Anthea and Anders enjoyed the wedding, they especially had fun playing with Uncle MK.

May the new couples lead a Blissful life ahead and start their own family soon...